SharePoint 2013 and SQL Server 2016

A common question we receive is whether SharePoint 2013 is supported with SQL Server 2016.
The answer here is clear: SharePoint 2013 is NOT supported with SQL Server 2016.
Only the following SQL Server versions are supported with SharePoint 2013:

  • The 64-bit edition of SQL Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1
  • The 64-bit edition of SQL Server 2012
  • The 64-bit edition of SQL Server 2014

There are currently no plans to add support for SQL Server 2016.
See here for more details on this topic:

66 Comments


  1. Hi Stefan,
    Great article.
    How about SharePoint 2016 on SQL Server 2016?
    Thanks,
    Andy

    Reply

  2. Thanks a lot Stefan,
    May I bother you with one more question?
    Is SQL Server 2008 R2 CU3 supported with SharePoint 2010 SP1 ?
    Thanks a lot for your help.
    Andy

    Reply

    1. Hi Andy,
      that should be supported.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  3. Does SP2016 support content deployment? Thank you.

    Reply

  4. Stefan,
    Would it be a problem to deploy the SharePoint Server 2013 on SQL Server 2016 by using the compatibility level with SQL Server 2014 SQL Server feature (Production/Development environments)? Taking advantage of this for the natural subsequent question: what about SPS2010 on MSSQLSERVER2014 with MSSQLSERVER2012 compatibility level?

    Reply

    1. Hi Elton,
      sorry – that is unsupported.
      It is the product version that counts – not the compatibility level.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  5. Stefan,
    Thanks for the great information. Another compatibility question: is SharePoint 2013 supported on Windows Server 2016. I have not seen any official statement to the effect that it is either supported or not supported. Thanks. Chris

    Reply

    1. Hi Chris,
      the supported OS versions are stated here:
      https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc262485.aspx
      “We only support the 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Standard, Enterprise, or Datacenter or the 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2012 Standard or Datacenter.”
      The last info I got on this topic is that there are currently no plans to support SharePoint 2013 on Windows Server 2016.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Just being a nitpicker – how about Windows Server 2012 R2? That isn’t officially supported for SharePoint 2013?

        Reply

        1. Hi Henning,
          indeed SharePoint 2013 RTM does not support it. Support for Windows Server 2012 R2 has been added SharePoint 2013 with SP1 (the slipstream builds available on VLSC and MSDN):
          https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2891274
          Cheers,
          Stefan

          Reply

          1. I see – I would have expected to see this information in the TechNet article you mentioned above as well, as this would be my first-stop-shop for such informations


          2. Indeed. It seems to be an oversight that this article has not been updated.
            I will open a change request for the article to ensure that it includes this information.


  6. Is SharePoint 2016 compatible with SQL 2016?

    Reply

  7. sharepoint 2013 is supported to win server 2016

    Reply

    1. SharePoint 2013 only supports the SQL versions listed in my post above. SQL Server 2016 (independent from the service pack level) is not supported.

      Reply

      1. Dont like what i read 🙂
        while Dynamics ax 2013 R3 Added Support for SQL 2016, it still stucks at SharePoint 2013 Support (and wont be added in future)…but SharePoint 2013 is stuck on SQL 2014 :/
        Would great to participate in a whole of the new Features of SQL 2016 and dont have to choose between the versions

        Reply

        1. SharePoint 2016 supports Windows Server 2016 and SQL Server 2016.
          So upgrading to the most current version of SharePoint would fulfill your wishes.

          Reply

  8. You state that SharePoint 2013 is not supported on SQL Server 2016, but I cannot see any reasons why. Is it just that it has not been thoroughly tested on 2016, or are there aspects of 2016 functionality which break SharePoint 2013?

    Reply

    1. Hi Phil,
      SharePoint 2013 has not been tested on SQL Server 2016 so we don’t have any info what works and what will break.
      Therefore using SharePoint 2013 on SQL Server 2016 is unsupported.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  9. This is out of date. I see plenty of pages saying it is supported by Microsoft and they are Microsoft pages.

    Reply

    1. Please show me one.
      Thanks.

      Reply

        1. SharePoint 2013 can work with SQL Reporting Services from SQL 2016. But SharePoint 2013 databases are unsupported on SQL 2016.

          Reply

  10. Hi Stefan!
    I have a Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard with a default instance and common components of SQL Server 2016. I would additional install a named instance e.g. SHAREPOINT on SQL Server 2012. Is it possible to run SharePoint 2013 on this named SQL instance SHAREPOINT?
    Regards,
    Georg

    Reply

    1. Hi Georg,
      it is possible but recommended to use an alias for this. The benefit is that you can later switch to a different SQL server or SQL server instance by just changing the alias configuration and without the need to reconfigure Sharepoint
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  11. Sorry to ask…
    Can Sharepoint 2013’s database reside on SQL 2014 but on a 2016 Server?
    So web front end and applications would be 2012r2 but the database would run on 2014 SQL instance sat on a 2016 server.

    Reply

    1. Hi Ben,
      the windows server version of SQL server is not relevant to SharePoint. As long as the Windows version is supported with the SQL version it is fine.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Thank you for such a quick reply here. My gold partner re-seller is telling me otherwise! Much appreciated.

        Reply

  12. Hello Stefan,
    Is SQL Server 2012 SP4 supported with SharePoint Server 2013 August 2013 CU?

    Reply

      1. Thanks Stefan for Quick response.
        So, if we upgrade SharePoint to SP1 then will SQL Server 2012 SP4 be supported?

        Reply

  13. Hi Stefan,

    Good Day

    Please tell me we have upgraded SQL server of our SharePoint 2013 from SQL 2012 to SQL 2016. Now our all web applications are working except 1. Can you explain is SQL supported now? How come all are working except 1 is not working?

    Reply

    1. Hi Abdul,
      SQL 2016 is unsupported with SharePoint 2013 and that will not change.
      You need to upgrade to SP2016 or SP2019 to get support for SQL 2016.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Thank you Stefan for clear cut clarification. Thanks alot 🙂

        BR
        Abdul Mannan Nasir

        Reply

  14. Hello Stefan,

    I found a technet stating that we should run SharePoint 2016 content databases on SQL Server 2016 in compatiblity mode 110.

    Symptom

    When you use SharePoint Server 2016 together with Microsoft SQL Server version 2016 or 2017, you may notice decreased query performance or increased CPU usage on the database server.

    Workaround

    SharePoint Server 2016 content databases that are deployed on SQL Server versions 2016 and 2017 are tested and validated to work best with compatibility level 110.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4469993/supported-sql-server-database-compatibility-levels-sharepoint-server

    Can you please confirm this?

    Thanks,
    Pablo

    Reply

    1. Confirmed. With the latest CUs SharePoint automatically changes the compatibility level to 110.

      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  15. Stefan,
    would you foresee any farm compatibility issues with this configuration: SharePoint 2016 Farm on Windows 2012 OS. consists of three SQL 2012 servers (one for the farm config db and services databases, separate SQL box for the web apps content databases. (each of our web apps (customers) is provisioned on its own SQL box) I plan to add a new web app to the farm and utilize a SQL 2014 / 2016 SQL box for a new web app? would there be any issues having SQL 2012 and SQL 2016 servers attached to the farm?

    Reply

    1. Hi Rosanna,
      I do not see any issues that would be caused by this.
      But I have another concern: Windows Server 2012 and SQL Server 2012 are out of mainstream support since around a year now.
      Same for SQL Server 2012.
      Both will be completely unsupported long before SharePoint Server 2016 runs out of support.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  16. Hi Stefan
    What is your opinion on this scenario:
    I have SharePoint 2010 on Windows server 2008 for internet zone and I’m thinking of migrating to newer versions of each.
    How would you go about this migration?
    What versions of SP, SQL and Windows server would you recommend?

    Reply

  17. Hi Stefan,

    Could you confirm below statement.

    SharePoint 2013 Farm is running on Server 2012 R2
    SQL 2012 server is running on Windows 2016 Server.

    are will able to connect our SharePoint 2013 Farm to SQL 2012 Database server( SQL is running on Win 2016)?

    Regards,
    Manoj Kumar

    Reply

    1. Hi Manoj,
      the OS version of SQL does not matter to SharePoint.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  18. Hi Stefan,
    What about compatibility levels? in the following article its suggested that the performance of SP2016 would increase and SQL resources would decrease in case of using SQL2012 Compatibility level (110) instead of SQL 2014 or SQL 2016 (120 or 130).
    This is probably because Microsoft changed the Cardinality Estimator on SQL 2014.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4469993/supported-sql-server-database-compatibility-levels-sharepoint-server

    unfortunately, Microsoft didn’t mention anything about this for SP 2013 in any document that i’ve looked in to.

    What would be your suggestion for SP2013 in that case? 110 or 100?

    Reply

    1. Hi Guy,
      the article was only required as – at the time it was written – SharePoint Server 2016 did not take care of correctly adjusting the compatibility level.
      Current patch levels of SP2016 update the compatibility level during database upgrade installations / patching.
      SharePoint Server 2013 supports the highest compatibility level of the support SQL server versions and you do not have to manually adjust it.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

  19. Stefan,

    We currently have SP2013 running on Windows Server 2008R2 and SQL2012. We have upgraded our virtual infrastructure and would like to upgrade the servers and be able to migrate to the new servers. Would we need to have Server 2012 R2 for the SP Web Front-end, SP Application and SP Database clustered SQL servers; and should we run SQL 2014 on the DB servers or could we do SQL 2016 in compatibility mode? Could any of the servers run newer than MS Server 2012 R2?

    Reply

    1. Hi Jess,

      newer OS versions than Windows Server 2012 R2 are not supported by SharePoint.
      In addition SQL Server 2016 is unsupported as well (independent from the compatibility level).

      To upgrade to the most recent supported versions you should stick to Windows Server 2012 R2 and SQL Server 2014.

      FYI: Upgrading the operating system underneath a SharePoint installation is unsupported.
      You would have to remove the server from the farm, uninstall SharePoint, upgrade the Operating System, run the prerequisit installer again (different OS has different prerequisits) and install SharePoint again.
      Usually customers go the cleaner way and install a fresh machine on newer OS and install SharePoint on it, join it to the farm and remove the SharePoint servers running the older OS from the farm.

      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Stefan,

        Thank you for your quick reply. Your answer is what I expected based on everything else I have read thus far, and it is very good to have the specific confirmation. Also, we were indeed going to build new servers, not try to upgrade the OS. Thanks again,

        Jess

        Reply

  20. Hi Stefan

    Please can you tell me if SharePoint 2016 (Build number 16.0.4810.1001) will be compatible with SQL Server SP2 CU11?
    Many thanks

    Reply

    1. Hi NT,
      you did not specify which SQL server version you are talking about.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Hi Stefan,
        My apologies – I was asking about SQL Server 2016 SP2 CU11.
        Many thanks.

        Reply

        1. Hi NT,
          SharePoint Server 2016 is compatible with SQL Server 2016. We do not limit the support statement for specific CUs. The CU you outlined was released alreaedy in December and no issues have been reported so far.
          Cheers,
          Stefan

          Reply

          1. Perfect – thank you for your response. 🙂


  21. Hi Stefan , If we bought a license SQL 2019 or 2016 and downgrade to SQL 2014 , Will the SharePoint 2013 support this scenario.

    Many Thanks
    Deva

    Reply

  22. I can confirm,

    Server 1: Windows Server (2019) Hosting SQL 2016 Std
    Server 2: Windows Server 2012R2 Hosting Sharepoint 2013

    Working fine.

    Reply

    1. Keep in mind that this scenario is unsupported.

      Reply

  23. Hi, Stefan.
    Thoughts on Sp2013 on O/S 2008. SQL 2014 on O/S 2019 ? Do you see any issues ?

    Thanks,Yassy.

    Reply

    1. Hi Yassy,
      Windows Server 2008 is unsupported since January 2020. Such a configuration should not be used as it will not receive any security updates.
      SQL Server 2014 is supported on Windows Server 2019 if SP3 of SQL server is applied.
      SQL Server 2014 is supported with SharePoint Server SP1 and current patches.
      Cheers,
      Stefan

      Reply

      1. Awesome. Thanks for your thoughts. 🙂

        Reply

  24. Hi Stefan
    Is this farm configuration supported:
    SharePoint 2013 running on Windows Server 2012
    SQL 2014 running on Windows Server 2016
    Thanks

    Reply

  25. Hi, Stefan.

    Thoughts on Sp2013 SP1 on O/S 2012R2 & SQL 2014 SP3 on O/S 2012R2 ? Do you see any issues ?

    This is just for security updates until we move this last farm to latest version. There is plan already.

    Thanks,Sumeet.

    Reply

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